


That look in your eyes

by average_writer



Series: Offer Me a Soul [3]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Cute, Cute Kids, Domestic Bliss, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Home, Kid Fic, Married Couple, Married Life, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-12
Updated: 2020-10-12
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:01:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26964847
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/average_writer/pseuds/average_writer
Summary: While Spencer is away on a case, Reader and the kids get sick. As bad as that is it does lead to a very important milestone for one of them.An Offer Me a Soul one shot. (you don't need to read the whole fic to understand it though)
Relationships: Spencer Reid/Reader
Series: Offer Me a Soul [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1951306
Comments: 12
Kudos: 78





	That look in your eyes

Any parent with more than one child has experienced the cold chain. When one of the kids gets sick and suddenly everyone in the house has it too. It happened at the Reid’s house too. Abby, my four year old, had caught a cold, which quickly spread to the nineteen month old twins. Consequently to me too. 

“Sophie Rose c’mon baby”, I said, holding down the squirming child as I tried to put the dropper in her mouth. I had tried everything I could, and I absolutely hated to be doing this to my sweet little girl but she had refused to take anything and her fever had not budge yet.

“There we go”, I encouraged, letting go of the dropper and watching as her little face scrunched up from the taste. “That’s it, that’s it”, I cooed, letting her go. 

I was relieved when instead of running away she joined her brother and sister under the blanket on the couch next to me. I ran my hand carefully through their damp foreheads, feeling the slight fever that had been present all night. I hated to see them so quiet and sad, when normally the three of them harvested all the energy in the world.

I eyed the medicines that Spencer had told me to buy, this was one of those moments in which having a genius as a husband came in handy. He had a long time ago found the best over the counter drugs for situations like this. The problem right now is that they made you sleepy, and it wasn’t smart of me to go to sleep a sickness off while I was responsible for three little kids who could get in trouble.

Spencer had been working with white crimes for a long time now, he liked his job. There were times that the BAU asked for his help, mostly when the unsubs wanted to play games with them and they needed his brains. He never mind helping, it was mostly done in his own office or in the comfort of our house. I knew that he was safe. Recently though, things in the BAU had complicated a little. Hotch had a close call while on the field, and after two weeks in the hospital he felt like it was time to leave. Apparently he had a deal from before that allowed him to collect retirement and step out, which he took. It was the best for him and for Jack, and he had left Emily in charge. Everyone knew the woman always had it in her to lead. She had been doing a great job by what Spencer told me, but then Derek’s girlfriend Savannah got pregnant. She had experienced complications and Derek had decided to quit to take care of her for the last trimester. The BAU was such a tight family that they knew the importance of these situations, but just as they tried to interview new people they got a bad case in Cali. The kind of job in which you cannot go outmanned, so Emily had asked Spencer if it was possible for him to join. It didn’t take a lot of discussion, I knew that Spencer would never put himself in danger, no, he loved our little guys too much to do that, and I trusted that he would be smart. He had promised to not go in the field and I encouraged him to go. 

Of course that was right before Abby came home coughing and saying she couldn’t taste anything. Now I was outmanned at home. I don’t know how long it was, my hand sweetly brushing their heads before the phone rang. 

I picked up as soon as it started making noise, trying to keep the kids asleep. 

“Hello”, I whispered.

“Hi”, Spencer’s voice soothed from the other side.

“Hi love, how are you”, I asked, although I tried to whisper a very sleepy Stephen propped his head up, immediately moving towards me and waking his sisters.

“I’m doing fine”, he sighed. “How are you guys? How are the kids? How are you? Did you buy the medicine, you know I was reading the ingredients of one of the cough syrups and I think we can up the dosag-”

“We are doing fine, the kids are doing fine and I think they’ve had enough medicine. They are sleeping right now”, I said, although my hand came to cradle Steve’s head that was on my chest now.

“How are their fevers?”He asked.

“Slowly going down.”

There was a long pause followed by a sigh from the other side.

“Maybe I can come back home, I think can finish this from home.”. He said.

I pushed my bottom lip out, although there was no way that he could see me.

“Spencer, we are doing fine I promise. If you came here right now you would get sick too, and we don’t want daddy getting sick”, I said sweetly.

“Yeah, but I should be there, you sound tired”, he said.

It was true I was exhausted. My voice was groggy and my nose stuffed, but he probably didn’t need more problems right now.

“I’m doing fine”, I assured him.

“I just wish we hadn’t taken Garcia too, she could have gone and helped you with the kids”, he said. I heard Penelope’s voice behind him sending hellos.

“We are doing fine Spencer”, I said again. This time though, Abby, who was absently looking away quickly perked up.

“Daddy?”, she yelped.

Stephen, who was oblivious of the caller, looked at me. “Daddy”, he demanded, making grabby hands at the phone.

“Oh wait, they are stealing you from me”, I said, trying to stretch away from the little hands for a second. I heard Spencer chuckle on the other side before I took the phone off my ear and put it on speaker. Stephen quickly grabbed it bringing it to his lips.

Abby leaned forward into the receiver.

“Daddy where are you?”, she asked, slightly frowning.

“I’m at work right now”, he said, “I miss you guys so so much”, he added.

“Daddy come home”, Stephen said. “I’m sick”, he coughed lightly in an attempt to persuade the man to come back.

“I’m sick too, and Sophie is too and mommy is too”, Abby added.

“I’ll be home very soon”, he sighed. “In the meantime I need you guys to be very good okay? Mommy needs to get some rest too, and you need to take care of each other”

Sophie, who had been listening to the conversation, crawled into my lap.

“Mommy gave us medicine”, Abby said.

“That’s good, you need to take medicine, and do everything mommy says”, he continued. “Sophie, how are you?”, Spencer asked.

Sophia was yet to say her first words, which was late for a kid. 

We had worried all we could worry, Abby was an early talker, and Stephen had hit the milestone more than eight months ago. Sohpie didn't. She was very quiet in general, but all we could do was encourage her. The doctor had reassured us that it was okay, and we knew it was going to be. Spencer worried about her the most, he knew about being a quiet baby first hand. It was because of him that I could worry a little less. I knew we loved her so much, and we made sure to tell her so every day, and make sure she knew she was safe with us. That’s all we could do.

Like right now, the girl had not said a word but he knew she was there, and she seemed to be happy to be acknowledged . After a second of silence she snuggled closer to me.

“Oh our little girl is very sleepy”, I said, hugging her close to me.

“I think everyone should go to sleep, and drink lots and lots of orange juice whenever you wake up. Remember how I’ve told you that orange juice helps us?”, he said.

“Daddy, are you going to be here when we wake up”, Abby asked instead, her lips forming a pout.

There was another long pause.

“I don’t think so pumpkin”, he said in a sad tone.

Abby pouted harder now. My arm coming to get her closer to me.

“But I promise you when I get home I will stay with you guys all the time you want”, he said.

“Okay daddy”, she agreed, still not looking convinced.

“Okay guys let’s send daddy kisses and then mommy and daddy are going to have a private conversation okay?”, I said.

It was only in hopes that they would let me say goodbye to him and remind him that we were doing fine one last time. The three debilitated kids however, didn’t need a lot of encouragement to resume their sleeping position.

“Bye daddy”, the two kids said, sending kisses into the receiver. Sophie decided to wave to the phone.

“Bye guys, I love you so so so so so much”, he said, his voice whispering at the end.

I smiled. After a second Abby went back to laying on the couch, Stephen snuggling on her side, and Sophie joining them.

“Hey”, I said, bringing the phone back to my ear.

“I feel terrible”, he said. “I should be there”

“We love you so much”, I said.

“I love you too. Have you eaten today?”, he asked.

It felt like until he asked if my body had forgotten, I had to hand feed three kids and take care of so many things it just flew past me.

“The guys had some soup today”, I said.

“(y/n)... have you eaten today?”, he asked again, formulating the question so I’d have no escape.

“I will make dinner in a bit, and make sure to eat.”, I said, slightly feeling like a reprimanded child.

“How are their temperatures?”, he asked concernedly.

“Abby’s went down by a lot over the day, the twins still have it, but Stephen’s seems to be budging. He’s been sweating.”

“Sophie?”, he asked, and even here, miles away I could hear his heart breaking.

“Not yet, but she took some medicine”

There was a sigh from both of us.

“Good, I love you”, he said.

“I love you too”, I said.

“I’ll be home soon I-”, He said, before some voices interrupted him. “I gotta go, I love you”, he said hurriedly before hanging up.

I wished he was here, but I also knew that right now he had something important to do. After checking everyone’s temperatures again I was relieved to see the slightly down fevers. Instead of waking them up I decided to let them sleep on the couch under the big blanket.

I startled a little when the bell rang. Checking that the kids were asleep before going to open the door.

“Aaron?”, I said, surprised to see the man standing on the other side of the door.

“Hello, Sorry to wake you”, he said with a polite smile.

“I wasn’t really sleeping, you are fine, how are you? what brings you here?”, I asked, covering my mouth when a yawn came.

“Well, Spencer told me you guys were sick and asked if I could get you some dinner”, he said, showing me the bags on his hands.

“Oh! That’s really nice”, I said. 

“I also wanted to check on you”, he added.

“I’m fine, we are fine”, I said waving him off.

“I know, but I remembered one time Jack and I got the flu and it was exhausting, I cannot imagine three kids”, he said handing me the bag of food which I accepted. “I don’t mean it in a bad way it’s just-”

“I know”, I chuckled, or tried to chuckle before my throat scratched in itself.

“Are you okay?”he asked, a little worried. I nodded my head clearing my throat.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I think I’m mostly tired”

“I can stay and help if you want”, he offered.

“Oh no, you might catch it too. I promise I got this, tell Spencer to stop worrying and start working”, I joked.

He looked like he had been caught in the act.

“He does that”, he said after a second. “Worries a lot”

“Oh I know, but just tell him we are doing fine over here, and I’ll tell him to stop sending people over who probably have better things to do”, I said.

“Oh I don’t have anything better to do, and I owe Spencer more than a dozen favors anyway”, he said with a small smile.

Ever since he had left the team he seemed to be taking life in a more relaxed way, which was refreshing and good for him and Jack.

“You know he is the one who finally helped me make the decision?”, he added after a second.

I shook my head interested in the story he was about to tell.

“When I was in the hospital and you guys were visiting, you left to get some drinks and I stayed with him and Sophie in the room. I asked him if he ever regretted it, I just wanted to know what would await me. I had asked JJ before if she regretted staying and she was confident in saying that she did, but she wouldn’t change things. When I asked Spencer, he looked down on the little girl and smiled. He said I don’t think so, but the smile he had in that moment I had not seen in him in years of knowing him. It was like the girl in his arms held all the answers he needed. Then I left and let me tell you, I discovered I see Jack the same way. He’ll never stop worrying about you guys because he can’t afford to. That I can relate to. So this one won’t even count as one of the favors, I know how he must be feeling, and I know you are probably with your hands full.”, he added the joke at the end, but my eyes were slightly teary. 

“Thank you Aaron”, I said in a low voice trying to avoid blushing, although in my condition I wasn’t going to blush anyway.

“No problem”, he smiled, “Are you sure you don’t want me to stay?”, he asked again.

“No, you already helped a lot”, I said, raising the bag of food.

He smiled one last time.

“Good bye then”

I waved as he made his way back in the driveway.

Walking to the kitchen as silently as I could I placed the items out on the counter. He had made sure that we all got our favorites. I took the corresponding plate with my food and sat on the living room chair watching the kids.

They all looked so quiet and peaceful as they slept basically tangled on one another. There was no trying to get them to bed, if I pulled one the other two would probably wake up. I didn’t want to wake them either, because right now I was just enjoying their presence. Our little angels who were so tiny and innocent. There was a reason why Spencer looked at them like they were the answer of the universe, it was because they were. 

I managed to eat the entire plate before Abby woke up coughing and really hungry, then it was back on nurse duty. 

Exhausted didn’t even cover it. All night I had woken with every sneeze, every cough, every turn. With all of them sleeping on my bed I managed to get like two hours of sleep total. The thing with kids getting sick, is that as soon as they feel fine they continue with their lives. Which had been what happened at around noon. 

“The girls woke up a lot better”, I said into the receiver.

“Good, what about Stephen? How is he doing?”, Spencer asked.

“Well, I think he is doing better than this morning, let me go check on them”, I said as I stopped chopping vegetables to walk in the bedroom. 

As a reminder that I shouldn’t leave three kids unsupervised all the sheets and pillows of the bed now laid a mess on the floor as Stephen jumped on the bare bed. The two girls on the floor standing on a single pillow.

“We are pirates mommy”, Abby said pointing at my feet. “Oh no you are on the water!”, she exclaimed.

My jaw dropped slightly at the mess before me.

“Mommy swim!”, Steve jumped. 

“What is happening?” Spencer asked.

“Nothing love, I gotta go bye”, I said into the receiver sending him a kiss. 

I considered it for a second. I could reprimand them for the mess that they had made, or I could join them in their antics.

With only two hours of sleep and a body barely recovering from the sickness I decided to join them.

It was incredible to see the amount of energy these kids had. They barely had gotten a short nap after lunch before they went back to playing. I had spent some time cleaning all of the bedding, Spencer would probably pass out if he knew his pillow had served as a boat for the pirate play. Still I didn’t have the heart to say anything to them. They were too cute to say anything, and that I blame on Spencer and his brown-hazel eyes that he gave to his kids.

I had completely forgotten to call him back. It was dinner time and right now I was trying to find the kids that were hiding around the house, they had shifted to a safari now. Which they got from a book they had been read to a couple of nights ago. All three of them were very curious, and immediately wanted to know what a safari was and how it worked. Somewhere in translation they had gotten the idea that the animals and humans were playing hide and seek, and that is what they were doing now. They were all lions hiding as I, human tried to catch them

I felt some movement under the office desk as I walked by. I made sure I was correct first before crouching on the floor.

“I got you!”, I said loudly, making the little girl jump a little. A big hearty laugh escaped her mouth as I pulled her out carefully. Picking her up and kissing her cheek. “Got you Sophie!”, I tickled her with my mouth as she laughed. “You want to go find your brother and sister?”, I asked.

The girl nodded her head.

I walked out, eyeing the baby gate on top of the stairs which rendered that playing field empty. I clearly saw a shadow move in the guest bathroom . I walked slowly, putting Sophie down before opening the door. 

“Ah Ha!”, I said.

Stephen immediately burst in laughter.

“You got me mommy”, my baby boy laughed.

“I got you little one”, I confirmed, picking him up as well.

“Now let’s go get your sister before dinner gets cold”, I said as I put him down as well.

Both kids waddled to the living room while I walked behind them, trying to see where Abby was, just as I was about to open a door we heard the front door open.

“Guys! I’m home”, We all turned to see the man standing in the hallway.

The pantry door that I was standing in front of opened quickly as Abby ran out. All three of them ran to hug the man who was now crouching on the floor.

“Daddy”, Abby and Stephen said, crashing against him with enough force to make him sit on the ground. He laughed happily. 

“Hi guys”, he said, taking a second to hug and kiss everyone.

“Hi”, I said, after taking a second to be surprised I walked towards them.

“Hi”, he smiled up at me. “I tried to text you that I was coming back but you never replied”, he explained.

“Sorry love, I haven’t checked my phone”, I apologized

“Daddy I missed you”, Abby said, hugging him.

“Oh and I missed you guys so so much, so much. Look, I got you candies from the airport”, he said, pulling out a clear bag filled with a variety of gummies from his bag.

As much as they missed him the kids were persuaded away by the sweets. When Spencer finally stood up I was thankful his arms were free of kids. Because when he finally stood up upright I launched myself at his arms. My arms hooking around his neck quickly. My feet were barely touching the ground but he kept me in place with his hands on my back.

“I missed you”, I mumbled against his chest.

“I missed you too”, he squeezed me against himself a little, making me giggle dumbly.

I finished my night time routine, standing in the middle of the closet as I pulled some pajama bottoms for Spencer.

We all had dinner and played for the remainder of the night, and when the kids were finally tired he had taken them to their rooms to read them their night time stories. They didn’t mind me doing it but they definitely loved the voices Spencer made even more. I did too, I had caught a glimpse of a very low pitched elephant before I walked down stairs. My body demanded I go to sleep as soon as possible.

I felt a familiar pair of arms surround me, as an equally familiar pair of lips kissed the nape of my neck. 

“I don’t know if we should do this, my husband could be here any minute”, I whispered, as I moved my head around to give him access.

“Well he is an idiot for leaving you alone for even one second.”, he sighed. His hands were already coming inside my shirt. 

I recognized the guilt in his voice though, so I turned around to face him.

“Well he is a very important man, and he sometimes needs to do stuff important people do”, I joked.

His lips crashed against mine as needy as the first time they ever met.

“Nothing is more important than you”, he said.

“Well sometimes there are things”, I said catching a breath, “More important things, and that’s okay”, I reminded him.

He looked down at me with such adoration in his eyes.

“You look tired”, he pointed out.

“Ouch, nice compliment”, I faked hurt.

“Don’t be ridiculous, you are as beautiful as always. I just know you and know when you are tired.”, he said meeting my lips once more.

“Well I was sick just yesterday, which should be a warning not to kiss me today”, I said, still I didn’t stop kissing him.

“That is a risk I will take completely willingly”, he said. I ran my hands through his hair, pulling out the soft curls by the root.

“Let’s go to bed”, he said.

“Let’s go to bed”, I echoed, trying to sound as entertained as possible.

“To sleep”, he added

I fully pouted now.

“No that’s no fun”, I complained.

“You need to sleep”, I opened my mouth to complain some more before he put his mouth close to my ear and whispered, “I need you to wake up with all the energies tomorrow very early, you are going to need a lot of strength to get through what I’ll do to you in the shower”, he said.

I knew that was a promise as well as a sign that he’ll take his shower in the morning. Still I smiled excitedly before he swept me off the floor. I laughed quietly as he carried me to the bed. Where he placed me carefully before joining me. 

“How was the case”, I finally asked, Hugging my body as close I could to him.

“It was… bad, at least it ended on a happy note”, he said.

I nodded my head as I kissed his cheek.

“I’m sorry for leaving you guys”, he said softly, running his hands through my back.

“Spencer, there was no way for you to know we were going to get sick”, I said, looking into his eyes.

Right there we heard a soft unsure knock on the door.

“Ohh I think one of them is coming to get that time back”, I said.

We always accepted them in, there was no way we could turn them down as much as he and I knew they needed to sleep on their own beds. All the books and experts clearly didn’t have the baby geniuses living with them, you couldn’t say no to them. Quickly I stood up, waiting to see Abby or Steve on the door wanting to sleep with us. Instead I was surprised when Sophie stood on the other side. Her little blanket and baby Winnie the pooh in hand.

“Hi baby”, I cooed, picking her up, a little worried that something had happened. Of the three she was the one who came to our door the least. “Everything okay?”, I asked.

She nodded her head against my chest. Spencer was now worriedly coming to us, placing his hand on her forehead before shaking his head.

“You want us to take you to your room, little one?”, Spencer asked.

We always asked them that, sometimes they would say yes and we would take them back to their room and stay until they were asleep again.

“Mommy I stay”, She said, her sweet little voice merely a whisper as she looked into my eyes. The last word was more of a question.

My eyes shot open looking at her. Tears already threatening to come out. She had said syllables before, and she was good at communicating non verbally, but the words coming out of her mouth were so sweet and wonderful.

“Sophie…”, Spencer seemed shocked, his eyes watery as he hugged us both.

“Oh my sweet little girl”, I sobbed as I hugged her.

Not only that, but Abby’s and Steve’s first word was daddy. Sophie’s first official word was mommy. She had said three words. We hugged her and kissed her little face before she frowned slightly.

“Stay”, she asked again.

I nodded my head, sniffling a little. “Yes baby of course you can stay here tonight”, I said, hugging her close again. 

Spencer had backed out a little, he ran his hand through her hair carefully combing it before he put a hand on the side of my head, getting me closer to him so he could kiss my template as I had my mouth against the little girl’s head.

I looked up at him. His eyes watery and sparkly as he watched us both hug each other.

This is the face Aaron had told me about, the one that made it look like Spencer was watching the stars for the very first time. I was sure I was watching him the same way right now.

**Author's Note:**

> Did I write this while eating a cheesecake instead of writing a chapter for my other story? Yes. I don't have an excuse more than I love this universe way too much and cannot stop writing about them. 
> 
> Consider this a beginning of the week gift to you all. 
> 
> Also, if I were to add a short (2-4 chapters) to this story with angst including (y/n)'s family would you read it?


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